Thursday, December 17, 2009

The cop out of Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 84 Judge Luisito Cortez from the multiple murder case against suspected massacre artist Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. mirrors the desperate state of the justice system in which arbiters of law on whom the people rely for justice, are either cowed by criminals or syndicates or are easily bought off.

The courts have been embroiled in many other situations that cast a cloud on the reputations of most judges in the country, including the recent tussle about big business bribery where, as opposed to the Ampatuan case, judges are on each other’s neck to have the case assigned.... MORE

Gloria Arroyo, blasting away at her critics the other day for her imposition of martial law in Maguindanao, certainly had the chutzpah to claim that it is her critics who had no faith in the Constitution, nor in democracy and the rule of law.

Gloria is really something else. She has this knack of putting all blame on her critics, and make herself smell like a constitutional and democratic rose — or at least tries to do so. Except of course that which she says, even when she slams her critics, just doesn’t fly.... MORE

In the course of a recent chat I had with him regarding the problems of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), chief Rosendo Dial told me about the state of the jail system in Quezon City (QC). Briefly stated, the largest component of Metro Manila faces a problem of congestion. In fact, QC’s jail is the most congested in the nation’s largest metropolis.

According to the BJMP chief, QC’s jail has approximately 4,000 inmates in a facility capable of decently housing half that number. Although the chief didn’t want to use the word, he was just short of discussing the jail situation in QC as “scandalous.” Dial, a former general, agreed with me that it was highly ironic, considering that QC is one of the two richest cities.... MORE